`Cops` Hits Road To Tape Soviet Union Special

The producers of Cops said that they eventually would take the show out of Broward County and on the road. They had no idea, however, of the circumstances under which they would keep their word.

The reality-based Fox program is headed for the Soviet Union.

Cops crews will visit Moscow and Leningrad between April 27 and May 14 and do the same type of filming with the local police that they have been doing with the Broward County Sheriff`s Office.

At least one hour-long special, tentatively scheduled for July on the Fox network, is expected to result.

Fox spokesman Jack Breslin said Yuri Spilney, a Russian producer based in Los Angeles, initiated the negotiations to take the show to the U.S.S.R. Spilney will serve as co-producer for the program shot in the Soviet Union.

``They have promised total access,`` Breslin said. ``We will be able to film airport security and their activities against drug smuggling, prostitution, homicide, rape, burglaries, domestic disputes -- the full gamut. Their only request was that we include a segment on their police academy, to show how their officers are trained. We agreed to do that.``

The Russian program will be compiled by six crews, three from Fox, three from the Soviet Union, according to Breslin. The program will consist of the most compelling material from both production teams.

``They said they will not require any review of our footage before we air it,`` Breslin added. ``As a courtesy, we will offer them a screening of the program in advance.``

-- WSVN-Ch. 7 isn`t going to give up Entertainment Tonight without a fight.

The station filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court seeking an injunction to prevent the syndicated program from jumping to WTVJ-Ch. 4 in September.

At the same time, WSVN also filed suit against NBC and its parent company, General Electric Corp., seeking damages for the manner in which NBC broke its 27-year affiliation with WSVN by purchasing WTVJ-Ch. 4 on Jan. 16, 1987.

The crux of the Entertainment Tonight suit is that Paramount, which syndicates the program, made a verbal commitment to keep E.T. on WSVN, where it has appeared since its inception eight years ago, for an additional two years.

In an affidavit filed with the suit, WSVN general manager Bob Leider reiterates a quote allegedly made by Paramount representative John Morrow that ``I (Leider) could drive it off the showroom floor.``

WSVN owner Ed Ansin said Tuesday that the station first suspected something was amiss when it received a follow-up call from Morrow requesting a rider to the deal, which would allow Paramount to move E.T. if the show failed to achieve a certain audience share.

``We said, `Fine,``` Ansin said, ``because if the show didn`t get the number they were talking about, we didn`t want to pay all the money we were paying for it.``

When WSVN agreed to the first stipulation, he said, Paramount came up with a new request: that if the show were moved, and Paramount didn`t receive the same monies from the new station that WSVN had been paying, WSVN would make up the difference.

``That we refused to agree to, because this just isn`t done in our business,`` Ansin said. The next call WSVN received from Paramount, he said, was to inform it that Paramount was moving E.T. to Channel 4.

Morrow said Tuesday that he had been instructed by his company not to comment on the matter.

WSVN charges that NBC used its ability to schedule E.T. and other Paramount programs on major market stations owned by the network to influence Paramount to break its deal with WSVN.

WTVJ general manager Dick Lobo, and Howard Monderor, a Washington-based attorney for NBC, have denied that Paramount was offered such an arrangement.

``I`m disappointed this has to end up in court. We negotiated in good faith for the program,`` Lobo said Tuesday.

In the suit, WSVN says that E.T., which plays from 7:30 to 8 weeknights and from 7 to 8 p.m. on Saturdays (the weekend show is called Entertainment This Week), is ``our most important program,`` because it leads into prime-time and ``its appeal to women between 25 and 49 is phenomenal.``

The portion of the suit involving NBC`s purchase of WTVJ and shift of its affiliation there rehashes many of the points that have been raised previously. Essentially, it charges that NBC acted in bad faith in not telling its affiliate, WSVN, that it planned to buy a competing station, and that during the period between the finalization of the deal and last Jan. 1, when the affiliation change became complete, NBC acted in concert with WTVJ even though WSVN was still its affiliation partner.

NBC attorney Monderor said Tuesday that he had not seen the suit and therefore could not comment on it.